


The Lion and the Wolf

by FictionSenpai



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020), Final Fantasy VIII, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Aggressive Attraction, Battle Scars, Body Exploration, Chronic Illness, Cloud and Leon pissing each other off, Complicated Relationships, Cuts & Burns, Epic Bromance, Exhaustion, Fluff and Angst, Hollow Bastion | Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, Hurt/Comfort, Light Sadism, M/M, Mako Poisoning (Compilation of FFVII), Mercenaries, Mild Kink, Mild Sexual Content, Overprotective, Rough Contact, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:48:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29105094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionSenpai/pseuds/FictionSenpai
Summary: Radiant Garden sits on the brink of destruction once again, and the only thing standing in the way is a worn-out committee leader and a sick mercenary who don't know how to be around anyone except each other.
Relationships: Cloud/Leon (Kingdom Hearts), Squall Leonhart/Cloud Strife
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

“Tch...”

A low hiss escaped reluctantly through tightly clenched teeth, barely detectable beneath the sharp proclamation, but it did little to deter Leon's progress as he ran hasty stitches through sundered skin, swift but meticulous in his work.

“Not looking good,” he mentioned offhandedly, his concentration reserved almost entirely for his current task. “Should've cauterized it before.”

Cloud rolled his neck with an idle groan of dissatisfaction at the needle pulling indecently through the deep gash in his shoulder blade, its erratic progress tempered by the firm pressure of Leon's gloved fingers against his back.

“No time,” he summarized, his lip curling for just a moment as he felt the stitches tug at freshly-torn skin, body jostling slightly from the movement. “Nh...shit.”

“Easy.”

Resting the edge of his palm precariously against Cloud's back with the needle still balanced between his fingertips, Leon reached over to lift a potion-soaked rag from the small glass bowl sitting beside them, letting it seep into the wound for a few moments before threading the remaining stitches. Several more bloodstained cloths were already strewn about the bed they were sitting on, along with a half-raveled roll of bandages and a stack of gauze pads, the inevitable aftermath of a grueling evening that none of them had asked for.

Leon paused for a moment to admire his handiwork in the low light, a mild tenor of discontent in his throat.

“You're a damn mess.”

It would have to do.

Cloud closed one eye for a moment as a gauze pad was taped over his back, his arms braced grimly against the edge of the mattress. His left bicep was already wrapped, a cut under his right eye held together with butterfly strips...there was another large, somewhat bloodied dressing taped across one side of his rib cage, and the deep gash across his stomach was tightly bound to keep him from twisting around too much, not that he had the energy to do anything besides sit there and listen to the disinclined leader of the Restoration Committee get on his case.

“Yeah, hundred to one. Nailed it,” he uttered dully, though he sounded more tired than he did annoyed. “So what? You're one to...ngh...talk...”

Leon tossed him a dry, uncharacteristically patient grunt that may have been a chuckle, securing the gauze pad and wrapping Cloud's shoulder over with the remaining bandages for good measure. Sure enough, there was a line of butterfly stitches up his own forearm as well, along with a line of bruised and swollen knuckles, though the white vest that clung to his frame hid the evidence of tended claw marks across battered ribs.

“Sure,” he acknowledged, his tone matter-of-fact. “But I don't have mako pumping through my system like fucking radioactive waste, either, so that's not really the issue here.”

Though he was facing away from Leon, Cloud's expression contorted slightly, and powerful, wiry muscle drew tight across otherwise frail limbs at the sentiment, because it was harder to argue in the face of inconvenient truths.

“I'm fine,” he muttered roughly, the irritation more prominent in his tone now, though it wasn't entirely with Leon.

“You're slipping.”

Cloud didn't want to hear it. But that was the thing about Leon – he had a knack for knowing exactly what other people didn't want him to say, and he more often than not, he said it anyway. Usually with a poignant air of unpalatable delivery, for good measure. Cloud may have been more approving if, more often than not, he wasn't on the receiving end, and he rolled his neck again with another grunt of discontent. The rent flesh taxing his body from so many angles was enough of a reminder without Leon laying it on the way he was.

“Just an off night.” Said under his breath, his demeanor growing surly. “Security system in the bailey went down...got breached. Took Cid a while to get things back online.”

“Whatever.”

Cloud glanced off to one side, toward the drawn curtains at the single window; in the dimly-lit room, the mako shone from his eyes with an eerie glow. Neither of them had left the military to go to war, but Radiant Garden had fallen once before, and as circumstance would have it, they were the last line of defense for a City of Light laid to waste by the forces of Darkness.

“The others still out there?” Cloud uttered finally.

“Everyone's back in one piece. Well...more or less.” Leon moved a hand over his own ribs. “It's been four days, after all.”

“That's it?”

“Hmph.”

Cloud suppressed a wry smirk, then set his hands on his knees.

“Well, looks like things've calmed down for now, anyway. We better – ugh...shit...” He faltered as he got to his feet at an unexpected pain that ripped suddenly through his torso, tearing at his insides like a beast ravaging its prey. “Nrgh –!”

His bare back landed against something solid just as he began to fall, and he realized a moment later that it was Leon. Rough hands came up against his shoulders to steady him, and his lips thinned slightly.

“Thought I just told you to take it easy.”

Cloud sighed sharply in annoyance as those same hands moved down from his shoulders over his injured back, sliding around his torso to rest carefully over his abdomen. The blade there had cut the deepest, more so than he had anticipated, and it was a moment or so before he could talk again.

“Damn...” He expelled another low breath, his body leaning up against gloved palms as his hips slumped forward, his back sinking more heavily into Leon's front. “It's fine.”

“Hey, come on,” came the lazy, still somewhat irritable growl from behind him. “Don't push it.”

“Ngh.” Cloud groaned a little in mingled exasperation and enjoyment as rough fingertips continued their exploration over contours of his stomach, in idle pretense of checking his wounds again. “Knock it off...”

“Shut up.”

Cloud expelled a sharp breath, his eyes drifting shut for a moment despite himself, though he'd sooner have chalked it up to his lingering malaise than the alternative if not for Leon's arm sliding around his shoulders across his chest, or the sensation of gloved digits roaming his aching torso without apology.

“Shit...” A quiet noise of exasperation left him, eyes closed beneath furrowed brows. “That feels good...”

“Hm. No arguments there.”

Cloud rolled his eyes slightly, lip tugging back just a little over clenched teeth in a snarl.

“Wasn't an invitation,” he muttered roughly as he felt Leon's hand dive briefly below his belt line and then up between the bandages wrapped around his lithe torso to find the dip in his navel. “Nrgh...”

“You're handing out invitations now?” Leon retorted.

Cloud didn't humor him with an answer. Subtlety had never been Leon's strong suit, and calling him out on what Cloud considered to be some of his more annoying...past times...wouldn't do much to deter him anyway. Not that Cloud ever went out of his way to deter him regardless, and he reached back behind himself to roughly coil the front of the other's white vest around his fist, twisting his head so that they were face to face before leaning in...

A light knock on the door had a flicker of annoyance passing over Leon's visage, illuminated subtly by the glow in Cloud's eyes.

“Sit down.”

With a careful push, he had Cloud sinking back down onto the edge of the mattress before crossing to the plain wooden door and tugging it open.

“What?”

“Oh, Leon.” Tifa's long ponytail swayed behind her freely as she shifted her weight, hardly perturbed by his demeanor; she rarely was. “Heard you and Cloud were here in the infirmary – you okay?”

Cloud sighed, shrugging his shirt on over his shoulders. First Leon, now this.

“We're fine. What is it?” he asked.

Settling a bandaged hand onto her hip, Tifa rubbed her nose a little, her gaze flitting back up to Leon. Behind her, the hallway was lit in a dull, eerie glow that reflected off the intricate weave of aged wood and bronzed pipes.

“Update from Cid. He needs us in Ansem's study.”

Leon folded his arms, the thought settling uneasily with him.

“...Fine.”

Cloud got to his feet again, more slowly this time at the behest of the warning glare that Leon shot him from over one shoulder.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Couldn't say.” Tifa held up her wrapped hand. “Hopefully good news, right?”

“Doubtful,” was Leon's take on the matter.

His sentiment coaxed a knowing chuckle from Tifa, and she cast a brief salute at the two of them.

“Only one way to find out.”

Cloud and Leon exchanged a glance, and Tifa turned on her heel.

“Message delivered,” she concluded. “See you in a bit.”

Leon frowned after her, lingering in the wake of an unspoken warning that the night was far from over. The siege of Radiant Garden was presently a twenty-four hour operation, reducing them to paired shifts across long hours just to hold the city line...a deadlocked stalemate he had no solution for, and one that served as a constant reminder that they were running out of time.

“Hey.”

Scowling, Leon turned in time to find Cloud's arm settling pointedly on the wall above his head, leaning in to fix him with a pair of vibrant viridian eyes where he stood. His pale complexion was unapologetic, but although neither of them were well-versed in reading human emotion, there was a look of understanding somewhere behind the glow of mako that even Leon couldn't mistake...along with a few other things.

“What?” he retorted, remiss to find himself unexpectedly trapped between between Cloud and the wall.

The worn leather belts crossed around his waist clinked together as a bloodless hand came to rest over them, and Leon's eyes narrowed skeptically at the gesture, unflinching despite his sudden predicament.

“Snap out of it.”

“Dunno what you're talking about.” Leon rolled his neck. “It's none of your –,”

“–Business?” Cloud surmised. “You're no good to anyone just standing around worrying about it.”

Leon sighed sharply – was he that easy to read, or was Cloud just that irritating when it came to filling in the gaps? The firm grip on the straps at his waist was steadying, but to Leon it may as well have been a mildly invigorating insult, because he didn't recall signing on to have Cloud know him as well as he seemed to think he did.

Even so, he didn't push away either, contenting himself with reaching up the wall behind him to intertwine their fingers and curling Cloud's bandaged arm just so to beckon a twinge of discomfort across the paler man's face, an unspoken reminder that he was beat to shit a lot worse than Leon was and had no business being so cocky when he was currently in prime condition to have his ass kicked for it.

“That hurts.”

“Hmph,” Leon offered dismissively, leaning forward to close the gap between them again, his head tilting a little to one side as he did so. “You always say that...”

His eyes started to drift shut, an invisible force beckoning him further forwards, but it was only once he was mere centimeters away that Cloud promptly released him without warning, turning his head to one side and reaching to tug open the infirmary door beside the two of them...Leon's lip curled with unreleased tension, and he caught himself just before he fell into the space where Cloud had lingered just moments before.

“Better get going,” Cloud surmised idly. “Gonna be late.”

Payback for doing as he pleased before Tifa came by, no doubt...Leon scowled.

“Asshole.”

“Hm.” He could hear the mild smirk playing across the asshole's face even though he was turned away. “Can't leave Cid hanging at a time like this. Come on...Squall.”


	2. Chapter 2

Necessity dictated the construction of makeshift barracks just inside the outskirts of the bailey, through which various shifts of restoration committee members dragged themselves when the situation called for it, but the accommodations were no more welcoming than the desolate battlefields that lay beyond the grounds. A temporary respite only for the most weary of the battle-worn, reprieve (if it could be called that) came in the form of bare cots and the promise of shelter against the encumbering precipitation that seemed to have plagued Radiant Garden with increasing frequency as time went by. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and desperation was all that had been afforded to its surviving residents since the world had first fallen to Darkness so many years ago.

The biting winds that cut through the stone architecture of crumbling city walls had shrewdly ushered the bailey's present occupants onto the same flimsy mattress at the bottom of the steel bunks shoved up against the far corner of the barracks, and Leon could feel the dwindling warmth of Cloud's body radiating through the thin material of his own shirt as they lay back to back in the midst of the gloom. The subliminally soothing rhythm of steady breathing behind him offered some repose, but had yet to beckon him into the throes of his own subconscious despite his mounting vexation that Cloud had so easily dropped off mere moments after his head hit the pillow...as though he didn't give two shits about anything going on around him. He made it look so easy.

Leon shifted slightly to glance behind himself, but as always, Cloud was unnervingly still while he slept, and the faint throbbing of a pulse against the translucent curvature of his neck somewhere below short blonde tufts was the only reassurance that he was still among the living, entirely oblivious to the scorn with which Leon's tired gaze burned holes into the back of his head for the flippant disregard that sleep had awarded him.

Time had done nothing but crawl by like wet cement since they had ventured out at Cid's behest, and, inspired in part by petulant retribution, Leon rolled over, his bare arm coiling around an undernourished waistline like a serpent closing in on its prey as a particularly icy gust crawled through the cracks in the decaying foundation, foregoing any effort to be considerate as he wrenched the sleeping mercenary closer and pressed rough lips unapologetically against the warmth of his pulsing jugular.

“Ah – hey –,”

A hand flew up blindly to rest across Leon's tightening forearm in protest, stiff muscle beginning to shift under the languishing frame within his grasp...several days' worth of healing magic and dwindling potion supplies had released broken bodies from the majority of the bindings that had once held them together, but it wasn't as though the threat of invasion ever really allowed for a full recovery before they found themselves back on the frontlines yet again, and this time was no different.

Vividly opalescent eyes flew open a moment later, aglow with rampant indignation.

“What the hell?” Cloud greeted flatly, finding himself awake much sooner than he cared to be and cold again because of it.

Leon continued unperturbed as he felt bony fingers close around his wrist in retaliation, curling his free arm further up around the tender ribs he was busy rediscovering beneath Cloud's shirt to drag him still closer. “Nothing. What's your problem?”

A sharp sigh punctuated the still and silent air around them, and Cloud twisted slowly onto his back, free hand moving idly behind his head as Leon hovered above him and luminous eyes hardening in discontent as he regarded the taciturn gunblade wielder.

“Did you sleep?” he prompted.

 _Unbelievable_.

“ _That's_ what you wanna talk about right now?” Leon ducked down irritably as the plunging neckline that parted the front of Cloud's shirt beckoned his attention, though he could tell by the way the other's gaze lingered on his face that the shadows under his eyes were more prominent than he would have liked.

_What a pain._

“Just put your arm down and shut up...” he added absently, twisting around in Cloud's grasp and interlocking long, gloved fingers within his own to curl the offending limb back against the mattress over their heads.

“ _That's_ what you woke me up for?” Cloud shot back as the unwarranted assault on his ribs traveled pointedly southward, his sentiment coaxing a wry chuckle from somewhere in Leon's throat.

“Actually, it's because we gotta start another patrol soon,” he clarified wryly from somewhere around Cloud's collarbone. “Why? Should I have woken you up sooner?”

Cloud rolled his eyes, trying unsuccessfully to free the hand that Leon had managed to pin down above him, upper lip curling for a moment in discomfort as his thin wrist was bent across the steel frame of the bunk there.

“Might've...saved a little time if you did...” he pointed out, his voice slightly strained.

Reaching up, he pushed lightly on Leon's abdomen beneath his hanging shirt in lackluster protest, but the sentiment earned him no reprieve, and a moment later his other arm had been shoved down near his side instead to afford Leon the opportunity to close in on the attack over the gap he had worked open in Cloud's shirt.

“Ah...”

Cloud shifted, one eye closing painstakingly, but there was little to be done until the uninvited assault against his chest abated again a few moments later, Leon's grip relinquishing on his wrists at last as he did so. Cloud glared at him.

“You think that's funny?” he said irritably, rubbing the teeth-shaped impression left behind against his skin.

“Hm.” Leon smirked and moved away from him, flopping onto his back atop the tattered mattress and looking a lot more smug than Cloud thought he ought to. “Like I said, gotta go soon. Just a placeholder.”

“What?”

“Don't wanna forget where I left off later.”

Cloud rolled his eyes again in mounting exasperation, but the sudden, humdrum wail of a distant siren roused them both before he could respond. Vibrant turquoise met with steely blue, and a grim exchange of unspoken understanding passed between the two of them at the sound. A breach never came unilaterally, and the remote echo of encroaching darkness not only reminded them of where they were, but brought with it the assurance that that they had no chance of reaching its source in time.

“East entrance...Aerith and Yuffie?” Cloud asked lowly.

“Tifa and Cid.” Leon pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, the deepset weariness that Cloud had noted on his face before seeping heavily into his voice as he spoke. “Aerith pulled doubles on healing duty last couple days. They'll just have to handle it.”

Cloud swung his legs over the side of the mattress and sat up, his disheveled shirt slipping down around his elbows as he did so. Leon's surly gaze swept over his exposed back for a moment, and his own expression sobered as well as he reached out to let let his knuckles drop against the unprotected skin there, softly this time, running over the surface for a moment before reaching out more purposefully.

The journey of rough fingers traversing raised scar tissue was a familiar one, but while Leon's body, much like his face, was marred with the remnants of war and a life spent within military walls, Cloud's was a different story, one they had never really talked about. The old stab wound through his gut and the half-healed lacerations from their most recent battle was one thing, but it was the smaller nicks and cuts, the ones that could so easily be overlooked if Leon hadn't spent as much time as he had familiarizing himself with each of them – the ones that were too precise, too specific to belong to the steel of a wayward blade or the sting of a bullet – which remained off-limits in more ways than one. Like so many things between them, that particular story was one that did not need to be told with words...not when Leon could so often feel the nervous twitch of muscle and sinew whenever his touch accidentally grazed those lingering surgical imperfections measured just below the epidermal layer, or see the way Cloud automatically seemed to divert any physical attention away from the meticulous pattern waylaid in flesh just above his hip, into which some manner of mako pump had once most likely been grafted.

And it was just as well that some stones were better left unturned, because as a man of few words, Leon found that his own silence only became a bother to him in situations where there was nothing he could say even if he wanted to. He had only heard Cloud bring that specific topic up once before, the most fleeting of references discarded in an offhand comment to Tifa that was meant to explain away the lingering remnants of pinpricks down the back of his spine, the ones that chronicling a history of failed analyses which his body hadn't been able to endure. “Defective” was the word he had chosen for himself, and it was the flippant disregard with which the remark had been thrown out that had pissed Leon off more than anything else, mostly because his personal propensity to ignore things he didn't like had suddenly seemed so unsatisfactory to him.

But then he had punched Cloud across the face instead, and they had never talked about it again.

Leon let his hand fall away, sitting up at last and pulling on his jacket again as Cloud in turn shrugged his shirt back up over bare shoulders...from within Leon's coat pocket, they heard the familiar crackle of incoming static, and Leon relented to extract the small two-way radio from inside it with a sudden sense of foreboding.

“Cid,” he uttered lowly. “You guys all right?”

More static...Cloud glanced over one shoulder in time to see the strain settling over Leon's sharp features as he tuned the frequency, but a moment later, Cid's muffled tones broke through the discord, and they both breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

“ _Crrk_...ain't nothin' to see here... _czzkk_...hey, just got an alert from the mainframe, 'nother one of those weird energy spikes 'bout due south of y'all... _crrk_...better haul ass over there right now!”

“Got it.”

Retiring the radio again, Leon wasn't surprised to see the same look of skepticism on own his face reflected in Cloud's angled features as well when he looked up. Their last several patrols had turned up nothing out of the ordinary, after all, but Cid had had a bee in his bonnet ever since his systems had first picked up the strange readings a few days prior...not that “somethin' big!” gave either of them much to go off of.

“Ready?” he uttered at Cloud, who swung his massive sword around onto his back with practiced ease and cast him a cursory glance, lips tugging subtly upward in a slight smirk.

“Hm. You're the boss.”

“Shut up.”


End file.
